The Association is one of numerous South African-based
conservation NGOs that promotes a well-managed, international trade in rhino
horn as the only sustainable solution to curb rhino poaching. With the IUCN
World Conservation Congress that is being held in South Korea until 15
September and World Rhino Day coming up on 22 September, the plight of the
rhino remains high on the agenda in conservation circles.
SAHGCA and the rest of the conservation community in South
Africa are waiting in anticipation to hear what the Department of Environmental
Affairs’ (DEA) decision is on legalising the trade in rhino horn. The DEA has
until 4 October to make its submission to the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to consider lifting its
trade ban on rhino horn. The matter is expected to be discussed at the 2013
Conference of the Parties held by CITES in Bangkok in March 2013.
Dr Herman Els, manager of conservation at SAHGCA, says that
as long as armchair-conservationists promote continuing bans on national and
international rhino horn trade, and wildlife conservation agencies complicate
any consideration of possible trading methods, poachers will continue to
decimate our rhino populations to meet the Asian demand for rhino horn.
“Thanks to the DEA’s appointment of veteran conservationist
Mr Mavuso Msimang earlier this year, the long-awaited rhino dialogue series was
concluded in August where all concerned parties discussed conservation, trade
and security matters regarding rhinos. The understanding was that the outcome
of the rhino dialogues would inform government’s submission to CITES.
“If the Department of Environmental Affairs does not use
this opportunity to urge CITES to consider lifting the international - or at
least the national - trade ban on rhino horn at its 2013 meeting, we will still
be discussing and wringing our hands in despair on next year’s World Rhino
Day,” Els says.
SAHGCA maintains that trade bans do nothing to save the
rhino. In 1970, there were an estimated 65 000 black rhino in the world. Today
there are about 5 000 left. “If trade bans worked we would not be spending vast
sums of money in man hours and other resources to debate the pros and cons of
legalising the trade in rhino horn.”
Els said attempts by national and international
non-government organisations (NGO) and conservation agencies to change the
behaviour patterns of poverty-stricken populations in countries where
unemployment is rife, is the wrong approach and will never work. The trade in
animals and animal products - whether it is legal or not - is a means of
survival in many African countries where there are still animals left in the
wild, such as elephants, rhino and lions whose ivory, horn and other body parts
are in huge demand from Asian countries.
“In South Africa with its unemployment rate of 25%,
conservation efforts based on European and American standards are a luxury
Africa cannot afford. Taxpayers’ money that should be spent on addressing
socio-economic challenges is being used on a variety of rhino security measures
with little effect. “
Els reiterates that, in Africa, conservation only works when
communities are incentivised to help protect wildlife through shared benefit
programmes. A good example where this approach works well is the CAMPFIRE
programme in Zimbabwe, which promotes local control over wildlife management.
CAMPFIRE has also been hailed as ‘…an antidote to the colonial legacy of
technocratic and authoritarian development, which had undermined people’s
control over their environment and criminalised their use of game’.
SAHGCA maintains the view that rhinos can pay for their own
and other species’ conservation and protection through a well-managed legal
trade in horn, starting with horn derived from natural deaths among current
rhino populations.
“It is no accident or coincidence that South Africa has over
90% of the world’s rhino population. It took hard work, sound management
principles and dedication from the conservation community to achieve this. It
is time that the international community listens and understands that the
answer to rhino conservation lies within Africa, and not in the conference
halls of the world.”
Els says it serves no purpose to debate the medicinal value
or not of rhino horn. “So-called education efforts to change people’s views on
the medicinal value of rhino horn, is not only a waste of money, but another
arrogant attempt to impose an Euro-American world and life view on other
peoples in the world."
“All we can hope for now is that the DEA will make a
decision that is in the interest of the rhino and that is right for Africa and
its people. The right decision by both DEA and CITES will also assist us in
addressing the serious threat to elephant and lion populations, which is
currently being overshadowed by the rhino issue.”
